A hugely ambitious church project has offered a stunning insight into the history of Kinross and Kinross-shire.
Vibrant details of daily life, worship, the people who lived in the area and their trials and tribulations such as war service, heroism and tragedy all feature in a new record.
The beautifully-bound and authoritative Record of Furnishings was presented to St Paul’s Episcopal Church by volunteers from the Tayside branch of the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies (NADFAS).
It becomes the first church in the county to boast such a record. Every item in St Paul’s has been recorded in great detail, with each entry accompanied by a photograph.
The family history of those commemorated, together with those who have gifted items, has also been researched. Words and prayers for the presentation ceremony were specially written for the occasion by the rector, Father David Mackenzie-Mills.
“Who would have thought that a church with such a small footprint would have revealed so much in such a massive document?” Father Mackenzie-Mills said.
“We are deeply grateful to all the volunteers for the many years of research that have gone into the production of this fantastic piece of work.
“The fine detail that is captured in this Recording, the first of a church building in the county, is already proving to be an invaluable resource.
“Churches are a rich way of exploring our social and cultural history and this NADFAS Church Record preserves this key resource for the congregation and for posterity.”
St. Paul’s was built in 1874 and some of the memorials reflect Britain’s imperial past, with individuals governing Mauritius, building railways in Ceylon and fighting in Somalia and Afghanistan.
There are three memorials to young men who died in the First World War and, poignantly, one to heroic Guide captain Kathleen Anderson of the First Kinross-shire Girl Guides.
Ms Anderson drowned in St Andrews Bay in 1929, along with her patrol leader Barbara McFarlane, in what is recorded as “an endeavour to save the life of a Guide”.
Within the service registers, past rectors have also recorded comments on world events of the day, and even on the weather.
“Will it never end?” one wrote of an appallingly wet winter when the “roads were running like rivers”.
The record also details the church’s fine stained glass windows, produced in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Those of the 20th century include windows by noted Scottish makers, including St Andrew, by David Smith, and St Margaret, by Douglas Hamilton.
The scheme for such a recording was initiated by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1973, when it realised how much ecclesiastical heritage was being lost through age and decay, changes in liturgy and, sadly, theft and vandalism.
NADFAS Societies throughout Britain have to date compiled Records of nearly 1,700 churches of all denominations, with an average of 65 being completed each year.
Selected information from these Records has now been compiled into an online index found at www.nadfas.org.uk/church-recording/church-records-index which is available free to anyone interested in researching Church Records.
The index includes the names of more than 18,000 artists, manufacturers and retailers, the subjects chosen for stained glass windows and paintings, and the names of 80,000 donors and people who have been commemorated.